How to Date Conrad Guitars

By Farrah Davis

If you have a Conrad guitar and are curious about its value, determining when it was made is the first step. This can be a tricky because the manufacture date isn't listed on the guitar. It may take a little detective work to narrow down the decade your instrument was made. Conrads were inexpensive guitars made in Japan in the mid-1960s through late 1970s.

Locate the serial number. Pre-1976 Conrad guitars usually have serial numbers on the metal neck plate, which is on the back of the guitar, where the neck meets the body. Unfortunately these numbers didn't indicate the year but only served to track the warranty.

Determine the type of electromagnetic pickups the guitar has if the serial number is on the neck plate. Single-coil, trapezoid-face pickups are from the mid- to late 1960s, and larger single- and dual-coil pickups are from the early 1970s. Regular-size humbucking pickups and more Stratocaster-like single coils are from the early to mid-1970s.

Determine if the guitar was made after 1976 to 1978. If the serial number is somewhere other than the neck plate, the guitar was probably made after 1976. Production of Conrad guitars stopped in 1978.

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About the Author

Farrah Davis began her writing career in 2010. She has worked for Harley Ellis Deveraux and Green Dinosaur as an environmental consultant project manager, writing environmental plans for commercial projects. She graduated from West Virginia University with a Bachelor of Science in interior architecture and a focus on environmental studies.